Phototherapy has long been used to treat various known conditions including, for example, jaundice in newborn infants. Jaundice is caused by a build up of bilirubin in the blood of infants. Exposing the infant's skin to certain types of light will quickly reduce the bilirubin to a safe level. Such treatment is generally only needed for a few days, until the infant's liver is mature enough to process the bilirubin.
One type of phototherapy device that is commonly used in phototherapy treatment comprises a fiber optic light emitter having fiber optic end portions that receive light from a halogen lamp or other relatively high wattage light source to obtain the desired amount of light output from the light emitter. The problem with using relatively high wattage lamps as the light source is that they are not very efficient and produce large amounts of heat that require the use of a fan to cool the light source. Incorporating a fan into the light source makes the light source quite noisy during operation and substantially increases the overall cost and size of the light source. Also such relatively high wattage lamps typically have a relatively short life and provide less light over time.
A need thus exists for a fiber optic phototherapy device that may be lighted by a light source that requires considerably less wattage to operate while still producing substantially the same amount of light output from the fiber optic light emitter for a given unit surface area.
A need also exists to be able to selectively light different segments or areas of a fiber optic light emitter at the same or different times as desired to allow the light to be turned off to different segments or areas if not needed. This not only saves on power, but may also reduce the amount of light to which care providers are exposed. Some care providers are very sensitive to certain bands of light, particularly blue bands which are especially effective for phototherapy treatment. By cutting down on the amount of light from the light emitter to which the care provider may be exposed, there will be less stress on the care provider caused by light exposure.